Economist – Water Sector - Degree Apprentice (Level 6)

Your Impact:

At Jacobs we’re all about Challenging Today and Reinventing Tomorrow! Start your Jacobs career with a company that inspires and empowers you to deliver your best work so you can evolve, grow and succeed – today and into tomorrow.

At Jacobs, we make the world smarter, more connected and more sustainable. Together, we’re pushing the limits of what’s possible. We stay ahead to create the new standards our future needs. How about a career that involves an opportunity to study alongside working for a company that is focused on the biggest challenges in the world today.  

The biggest questions spark our curious minds. At Jacobs, we solve the most important problems, the ones for the real world – making life simpler and more seamless along the way. We are excited to be looking for a Regulation and Assurance Apprentice based in London! You will work towards achieving an Economics qualification.

About the role

How does the government ensure water customers get value for money? How do water companies demonstrate that they are reporting performance accurately and transparently? What does the regulator need to measure, and how, to gauge company efficiency? These questions and others like them spark our curious minds and are at the heart of what we do in the Water Resources and Regulation team.

We operate across a diverse range of consulting projects, helping our water company and regulator clients to build a more efficient, more resilient and more environmentally beneficial water sector. We audit company non-financial performance and we tackle complex, multi-stakeholder challenges.

Some of our recent projects have covered areas like:

• The cost for the water sector to reach net zero carbon emissions.
• How to work out the cost of treating different components of wastewater.
• Upgrading water resource planning tools to get more optimum 25-year water resource plans.
• Reviewing the cost drivers used to describe sector efficiency.
• We have a matrix-based operating style and we often collaborate with experts from different parts of the water sector value chain and with those working in other sectors, giving our team members great exposure to a wide variety of skills and people.

About you

We are looking for an apprentice who can work alongside our team by helping to audit water company data, undertake analysis, document findings and contribute to planning and delivering consulting projects.

Here's what you'll need:

Essential qualifications:

• A Level Maths Grade A
• Economics and English qualifications are desirable.
• Qualifications in chemistry, physics or other technical subjects would be beneficial.

You should be able to demonstrate that you:

• Are a well-mannered and professional individual with a positive ‘can do’ attitude.
• Are proactive in nature and take pride in ‘getting things done’ to a high standard.
• Demonstrate a keen interest in a career in economic regulation and consulting in the water sector.
• Write in a coherent, clear and concise style.
• Are able to take on responsibility and work with limited supervision.  
• Are familiar with Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word.
• Can read, understand and explain technical documents.
• We do quite a diverse range of consulting, so you need to have a flexible approach and be willing to learn new skills.
• You will need to be interested in characterising and solving abstract problems and have some aptitude for it.
• You also need to have good attention to detail and a reasonably long attention span.

The Essentials

Jacobs require innovation, whether that be technology enabled or not, it requires us to use our ‘Essential Skills’ as well as our technical skills and experiences to positively disrupt and innovate.

It will be our Curiosity, Innovative thinking and Adaptability that allows us to embrace change, it will be our Empathy and Listening capability that allow us to truly understand our client’s requirements.

As we learn to automate some of the activities it will be these ‘Essentials’ that will allow us to offer competitive advantage over our clients and prepare us for the future. We believe that ‘The Essentials’ are the foundation for all of us, to equip us with not just the human skills that allow us to embrace change and bring world class innovation to our clients but also that allow us to explore and shape diverse and creative career opportunities in Jacobs.

Why Jacobs?

Recognised throughout industry as a benchmark of good practice our Early Careers Programmes offer a structured approach to Continuous Professional Development. You’ll benefit from learning will provide both the technical skills, behavioural competencies and business acumen you require to create your future.

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